The Other Desert WarA key element in nearly all immigration “reform” proposals is
tightening the border with Mexico. But somehow the politicians don’t seem to be
taking the credit this approach already deserves in its success in keeping out
undocumented immigrants. So far just this year at least 275 bodies of job
seeking workers, dying while attempting to evade the more fortified sections of
the border by cutting across desert areas, have been found. Still others drown
in the All American Canal running along the California/Arizona/Mexico border–and
even more are expected to perish when concrete lining of the canal is completed
leading to much swifter current. Many are buried unidentified with simple wooden
crosses reading “no olvidado” (not forgotten.) The total number of immigrant
lost lives since border security was stepped up in 1994 during the Clinton
administration is over 4,500. That’s more than the number of American GIs killed
in Iraq, more than the number of Germans killed by guards while trying to get
over the Berlin Wall.

Union Busting Not On the MenuFood services in the Minnesota Capitol complex were privatized long
ago but successive contractors always maintained the regular cafeteria
workforce, represented by UNITE-HERE Local 17 since 1958–until now. The new
boss, Taher, Inc, offered employment to only three long service workers–and
those were part-time jobs with no benefits. Last week there was a rally in
support of these outsourced workers in front of the Capitol where unions
representing the cafeteria’s primary customers pledged to boycott the new
operation.

About That VictoryThere was much fanfare about labor’s “friends” in congress committing
to give back the right to organize–taken away by Homeland Security--to airport
screeners. But this premature celebration was short lived. Senate Friend #1,
majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), received unanimous consent–including from
the “socialist” from Vermont–“that it not be in order to consider the conference
report if it contains the collective bargaining provisions, which I have
committed to drop, as has the Speaker [Friend #1 in the House, Nancy Pelosi].”
According to the labor news service, Press Associates, the Democrats scrapped
union rights because they were anxious to get the 9/11 commission legislation
passed and “force Bush to improve overall U.S. security.”

Tree Huggers In Santo DomingoLife can be bleak for the working class in the capital of the
Dominican Republic. One of the few pleasures all can enjoy are the parks in the
Colonial Zone of town where the son of Christopher Columbus planted mahogany
trees 500 years ago. City residents were not pleased when, without any notice,
much less public debate, city chain saw crews started chopping down the majestic
old growth trees. City Hall issued a cynical statement explaining they were
replacing European and African vegetation introduced by conquistadors with
“native species.” This was about as popular as the mayor of Los Angles would be
if he axed all the palm trees–originally imported from places like the DR--and
replaced them with the desert vegetation once “native” to that town.

A spontaneous group, Somos Todos (all of us) sprang
up and people started chaining themselves to the endangered trees. “Those trees
belong to the people, not the government! They are the air we breathe and the
only natural thing we have to enjoy here,” they declared. For now their limited
numbers seem to have stopped the clear cutting in the Colonial Zone--though
thousands of tree stumps now blight the working class residential neighborhoods.

Clearly there is more at stake here than preserving a
treasured park. Somos Todos issued a manifesto accusing the local Establishment
of seeking to drive the poor out of public spaces. “The mayor has a vision for
the city, but it's one that doesn't include workers. He wants a city that looks
like Miami, that will be attractive to tourists,” said Hecmilio Galvan, an
economist and founding member of Santo Domingo Is All of Us. Resentment about
the lack of democracy in their country, and being made to feel unwelcome in
their beautiful homeland by rulers catering to rich foreigners is palpable.

But intertwined in this traditional movement for democracy
and national pride is a growing awareness of environmental issues. Amparo
Chantada, an urban planning engineer, told the Los Angeles Times that the
massive tree felling has endangered wildlife by destroying habitat, and
contributed to air pollution and greenhouse gases. “We have become a bad example
in a world preoccupied with global warming,” Chantada said.

We could all learn something from the working class tree
huggers of Santo Domingo.

Will the Big Three Contracts Be
Enhanced?One of the more innovative “partnerships” between the UAW and the Big
Three automakers is at Chrysler’s Belvidere, Illinois assembly plant. Now the
UAW has long made two-tier wage deals at parts suppliers, and employers such as
Caterpillar. Temporary workers–usually limited to 120-day assignments--are
nothing new to them either. But unique so far is what they call at Belvidere
enhanced workers, sort of a hybrid of two-tier and temp.

The special deal was made in exchange for Chrysler
renovating rather than closing the plant where Dodge Caliber, the Jeep Compass
and Jeep Patriot are now assembled. The enhanced workers are paid about ten
dollars an hour less than their fellow UAW members with tenure. They get no
dental or vision coverage, no pension credits or sick pay and no guaranteed
raises. They can be laid off at any time -- and more than 100 have been -- and
are not eligible to receive pay through the jobs bank that protects other laid
off UAW workers. They are, in fact, very similar to the thousands of temp
workers employed by Toyota and other unorganized “transplant” employers.

This deal was crafted in Detroit, not Belvidere. The UAW
local president attempted to file a labor board charge against the unequal
treatment but Solidarity House promptly brought down the hammer on that. Some of
the enhanced workers have tried to file a class action suit in federal court
against the arrangement but it seems unlikely they will get any relief in that
quarter.

Now there is speculation that the Big Three will seek to
expand this successful (for them) innovation more widely throughout their
assembly plants to make them even more “competitive.”

Occupying Their Idle TimeThis past spring a U.S.-based company, Greenbriar, shut down the
TrentonWorks rail car plant that had been operating in Trenton, Nova Scotia
since 1872. Three hundred production workers, members of the Steelworkers, were
permanently laid off as the company announced the work was being transferred to
Mexico. Only a dozen unionized security guards remained to watch over the moving
out of equipment. Last week the company dismissed those guards, outsourcing
their jobs. In solidarity more than 200 laid off TrentonWorks unionists showed
up to block the plant gates and twenty of them occupied the guard shack.

Viva Northland PosterWe were relieved to hear that the Northland Poster Collective in
Minneapolis has survived a financial crisis that threatened to put them out of
business by the fall. An emergency fund drive has enabled them to “retire our
old debts and meet payroll! And we'll have capitalization left over to expand
our outreach and introduce new product lines, too,” the 28-year old organization
said in a statement last week. Northland has produced original art, posters,
t-shirts, bumper stickers and many other items for a variety of union campaigns
and other struggles. For updates on Northland's future, sign up on the group's
website, www.northlandposter.com